Why should we build up a Start-up vocabulary quickly?
Draft v1.1. August 4, 2002 Rob Waring
This page is at http://www1.harenet.ne.jp/~waring/vocab/principles/early.htm
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Abstract
This article will examine the reasons why it is important both linguistically and psychologically to build a vocabulary quickly when learning a foreign language. The article asserts that very little can be achieved or learned in a foreign language with a small vocabulary and that by building a sizable vocabulary quite quickly one can soon be able to function adequately. You may also wish to look at http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/95/feb/meara.html
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Introduction
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It is obvious that in order to learn a foreign language one needs to learn many many words. But how many? Educated English native speakers have a vocabulary of about 20,000-25,000 word families (A 'word family' refers to a group of words that share the same basic meaning e.g. create, creation, creating, created, creative etc), foreign learners of English need far fewer[1].The speaking vocabulary is usually said to be half of the reading and writing vocabulary. Foreign learners of English only need about 3000-5000 word families to be quite competent in speaking and listening to English. This is great news for learners of English because their task is much easier than that of native speakers!
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One of the reasons for this seemingly small number is the nature of words and the frequency with which they appear in a language. Not all words are equal because some words such as time, the, come, make, and so on are very common whereas others such as parasol, bombastic and edifice are relatively rare and not met everyday. It therefore seems clear that these frequent words should be among the first words to learn because they will be met most often and will be needed frequently in speech or writing. Thus the pay off for learning them is higher than for an average rare word. These words are often called a General Service Vocabulary because these words are found in many kinds of situations and domains. This is a vocabulary of about 2000 word families. The best list (although it is a bit dated is Michael West's 1954 list called the General Service Word List.) These General Service words are found a very very wide range of contexts such as in the medical world, in novels, in scientific reports, on web pages, in daily conversation, in politics and so on. Because these words appear in so many contexts they are extremely useful to almost all learners.
... encountered; it is almost as a memoir to make the novel more cope able. A physical and emotional burden carried by a platoon from the war. Things everyone carries, tells many things about once person, the book inclines more into an emotional and spiritual through one’s life, especially a changing one as a soldier would experience it. O’Brien Stories goes beyond the war; it goes more in depth of each event, each character, and each place, as a diary to write out everything to cope with the experience, wondering someone else will read it. Tim O’Brien let his imagination flow; he wanted to integrate his own stories, along with stories that were close to him. At last it doesn’t matter if it’s fictional, or not, it is a part of him in every chapter of The Things They Carried, that he chose to share with each reader
It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.” How to Tell a True War Story is the only section is The Things They Carried that O’Brien specifically states is
One of the most significant ways for O’Brien to relate his war experience through the reader is to embellish the truth of the story. By doing this, O’Brien is able to add dialog between characters, spark interest to the reader, and add personality to the book. O’Brien’s purpose for writing false information from true events is because O’Brien doesn’t want the book to be just factual information. In this way, the factual information in any war story can be unrelatable to the reader. The fiction aspect of the novel makes it more appealing and understanding to the reader. “But listen. Even that story is made up. I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” (O’Brien, pg. 171) Through this statement, O’Brien discuss how he uses fiction to help to reader understand his emotions. For the intention of connection O’Brien’s perspective to the reader, he utilizes the genre of autobiographical
American’s often romanticize war; it’s most often thought of as a heroic, complex story with a great moral in the ending, but O’Brien has clearly mentioned that if a war story has a great moral, that you should be skeptical of it(Things They Carried Themes...). In The Things They Carried, O’Brien tells a few stories of the men of the Alpha Company, stories he thought the boys would appreciate being told, but he never clearly states a moral. He leaves it up to the reader to decide the point. The point is that any stressful situation can create a dynamic character, and he demonstrates that by telling stories of how the things the men took with them affected their consequences.
Tim O’Brien’s ultimate purpose is to detract the fine line between fiction and reality. In order to fully grasp what a true war story consists of, the definition of true must be deciphered. O’Brien seems to believe that it does not need to be pure facts. Instead, it is mostly found in the imagination of the individual. Readers need to receive a story based on the truth in its overall purpose and meaning. It just needs to feel true. The author implies that it is not important whether the event actually occurred or not, because if the reader wants to believe it that badly, the feeling of truth will always be present.
Rather, the stories are short and straight to the point in order to avoid glorifying them so that content of the story maintains its relevancy to the experience that the soldiers had in the Vietnam war. He is found constantly blending fact and fiction throughout the book in hopes of exaggerating the fact that often the validity of a war story is much less relevant than the act of expressing a point or moral. Additionally, its made clear that the author’s goal is not to compose a novel solely about the history of the Vietnam War, but instead to depict how discussing war experiences serves in the establishment, or lack thereof, of bonds between a soldier and the audience he/she is speaking to. He believes that stories contain a great deal of power, since they allow people to confront the past together and share otherwise unknowable experiences. Overall, Tim O’Brien’s writing magnifies his belief that the hard facts surrounding an event are less important than the overbearing truths the event serves to reveal, and how it, in turn, affected the fifty-eight thousand killed, two thousand captured, and three hundred fifty thousand maimed and wounded
In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien portrays a captivating message of responsibility to his readers. Its moral explains how we sometimes let ourselves “out” of our problems, because we would like to be somewhere pleasant. The excerpt retrospect’s the war in Vietnam and illustrates the mentality and life of the foot soldiers that fought and died there. By establishing what each character carried in a literal, spiritual, and mental form, the reader can understand what the men were about. By doing so, O’Brien creates a world where reality and imagination meet and are in competition with each other.
Words their way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling instruction defines spelling inventories as “a list of words specially chosen to represent a variety of spelling features at increasing levels of difficulty” (WTW, 2012). Spelling inventories are designed to help assess a student’s stage and what they know about words (WTW, 2012). There are many different types of spelling inventories. Some of these inventories are The Primary Spelling Inventory, The Elementary Spelling Inventory, and The Upper Level Spelling Inventory. The Primary Spelling Inventory (PSI) consists of a list of 26 words that begin with simple words, and ends with inflectional ending words (WTW, 2012). For example, the Primary Spelling Inventory in Words their
At the beginning of each unit a vocabulary list is given out, and as the vocabulary is gone over within the lessons emphasis will be placed as to where the students may find the terms on the vocabulary list.
You can further improve your vocabulary by learning another language. "The more languages you know, the more you are human," (Masaryk "Why Should I Learn a Language?"). If you have had a background of language classes you will have it easier in the long run. Improving your vocabulary will improve your life in many ways. And on...
Family, a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household. Although family is a concretely defined term, the idea of family varies from person to person. But, what makes a family? For those who are surrounded by loving blood relatives, for those who have never known the one to grant them life, for those who have left their blood behind for a more loving and nurturing environment, what can commonly define a family? Family is something defined by the individual. Family includes those who you have come to love, whether platonically or romantically, those you have suffered with, those you have come to respect, and most importantly those you have cared for and in turn have cared for you. To one that could mean people who
New languages are always overwhelming.English is difficult language to learn, especially if it isn’t practiced often. The english language includes rules that can be frustrating to get a grip of. Many International students face the fear of not being understood or not pronouncing something correct...
When the word “family” is discussed most people think of mothers, fathers, and other siblings. Some people think of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even cousins and more on the pedigree tree. Without family in people 's lives they would not be the same people that they grew up to be today and in the future. When people hear the word family they think about, the ones who will help them in any way they can whether it 's money, support, advice, or anything to help them succeed in life. Family will forever be the backbone of support. They are the ones who support their children during those life decisions. Family is not always blood related. Finally family is forever, family will never go away.
Family is one of the most important support systems for a person, from a mother or father raising up a child, to siblings or cousins that are there for each other; having a great family is key to a successful and joyous life. Fathers, mothers, siblings and children are the most important members of any family but family can be more than immediate people in a home, it can be people that are not even related by blood. Family can be individuals that have helped and supported each other throughout life. Family can be more spread out to some people than to others.
Family, one word with so many definitions, but what truly defines what a family is? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines family as the following, a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head. I like this definition of family because it says nothing about a family being related by blood, but that they are individuals. Personally think that blood doesn’t make you family, being provided and cared for and properly taken care of and loved makes you family. Not all families are blood related, there’s families that have adopted kids, families that have no kids, families that consist of two people and a pet or two. There is no rule that states all families have to have a mother, father, and children. Every family differs